Lessons Learned from Spring and Basketball

March means different things to different people, but to many, the month is synonymous with the start of Spring and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. While these two things are often considered distractions that steal our attention away from our every-day work and routine, let’s consider the lessons that the season of Spring and the March Madness basketball tournament can teach us about good business practices.

First, Spring is all about new beginnings. There’s something inexplicably wonderful about a warm breeze and trees as they begin to show their green buds, especially after a long winter. These are signs of newness, of change from what was to what is to come.

Sometimes in our work and with our clients, we too could benefit from a periodic turning over of a new leaf. While we certainly don’t recommend abandoning your current clients to pursue something completely different, or throwing out a project you’ve invested quality time into, perhaps you can use Spring as a time to get a new perspective. Look at your project or your client differently. Think about ways you can bring freshness to your work, and don’t be afraid to change things up.

Second, college basketball and specifically the NCAA tournament demonstrates so many values that are easily applicable to business: hard work, teamwork, working toward a goal, just to name a few. Watch any of the games this weekend or think back to any of the match-ups from last Thursday-Sunday and you’ll notice the sheer determination in the eyes of each and every player and coach on each and every team. No one wants to go home. No one wants his season to end. Imagine if we all took this mentality, this “give it everything you’ve got” attitude, with us into our work. Think of what we could accomplish.

So as we enter the last week of March, we challenge you to try to emulate Spring and do so with a basketball mentality. Join us in embracing work (life, even!) with a willingness to look at things in a new way. Let’s try to steer clear of just going through the motions and instead work with a passion that inspires those around us and gets results for our clients.